Disgraced horse trainer from Collierville gets probation

CHATTANOOGA — For one hour Tuesday afternoon, a federal judge seemed to flirt with giving prison time to a Collierville walking horse trainer, but ultimately sentenced the man to three years' probation and a $75,000 fine.

U.S. Dist. Judge Harry "Sandy" Mattice appeared conflicted and questioned a plea agreement between federal prosecutors and attorneys calling for probation for Jackie McConnell, 60.

"Tell me why I should accept this agreement, which basically constrains me," Mattice demanded of prosecutor Steve Neff. "If I accept it, I'm bound by one provision: whether he should receive imprisonment."

McConnell, the Collierville trainer once named trainer of the year in Shelbyville, Tenn., sat at the defense table biting his lip.

Aside from the specter of jail, he had faced up to five years' probation and a possible fine of $250,000 for horse soring, the chemical or mechanical abuse of a horse's feet to alter its gait to win coveted walking horse competitions. He pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to violate the Horse Protection Act, a felony.

When the sentence finally was pronounced, McConnell appeared relieved.

But some left the courtroom with mixed feelings.

Keith Dane, equine protection director of the Humane Society of the United States, and former U.S. senator Joseph Tydings, R-Md., author of the Horse Protection Act that criminalized soring more than 40 years ago, stood on the courthouse steps and praised McConnell's prosecution.

But they said the weak sentence should motivate Americans to push for passage in Congress of the Horse Protection Act Amendments of 2012, a bill introduced last week to strengthen the weak law.

"I imagine there will be a lot of reaction in the public to this sentence today," Dane said. "The way to fix it is to toughen the Horse Protection Act." Last week, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis and a congressman from Kentucky introduced legislation to end the use of chains, most pads and the industry's self-policing. The Horse Protection Act Amendments of 2012 also would make soring a felony and toughen penalties.

The McConnell case and a separate 2011 case were the first criminal prosecutions of the act in 40 years, according to Tydings.

Defense attorneys declined requests for a comment from McConnell, and slipped him out of the courthouse through a door away from cameras.

Mattice sentenced McConnell's co-defendants, Joseph Abernathy, 30, and Jeff Dockery, 54, to one year of probation each. Both men pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor related to horse soring.